Cafe Le Coq - Oak Park

I'd like to go there for my birthday dinner next week and I am wondering if anyone has been there and what they've thought. I'm going with my parents and sister, and my dad is a stickler for good service/food. We all like French, so any reviews/thoughts would be great.

You'd be much better off at the nearby Hemmingway's. I find the food and service to both be better, and the space isn't as cramped (nor, for that matter, as perfectly decorated).

But the food beats Cafe le Coq's by a mile.

-ed

I agree with Ed, but for further (and more enthusiastic) opinions, check out these prior posts

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=8896#8896

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=10322#10322

We've been to both Le Coq and Hemmingways multiple times, and to Bistro Marbuzet in Forest Park a couple of times. Hemmingway's wins for the broader menu (in particular lots of fresh seafood and great souffles for dessert--be sure to order one when you order your main course), the more comfortable room, and the friendlier service. We send people there for special occasions a lot and they always come back glowing.

Ann Fisher wrote:I agree with Ed, but for further (and more enthusiastic) opinions, check out these prior posts

For further and less enthusiastic opinions check out.

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=10613#10613

Enjoy,
Gary

Obviously, we all have our own experiences, but at my one visit to Hemmingway's I was less impressed. Also, Ms. VI has been a few times to Hemmingways and also is not so enamored with that place. On the other hand, in our family's experience, we have always enjoyed Le Coq.

What is frustrating me, is that so few of the "upscale" places in Oak Park-Forest Park are open for lunch. I would probably visit Le Coq more often if they bothered to be open for lunch.

Rob

I'm with VI. Overall, I've been more pleased with the Cafe than the Bistro, which I've mostly done for breakfast and lunch. We went to the Cafe for New Years and overall they did a very nice to excellent job. All food was excellent except the cassoulet, which was not hot enough and I should have sent back. I very much like the atmosphere and energy at the Cafe.

We had another excellent if slightly flawed meal at Le Coq on Saturday. For a change, we got shunted off to the alcove near the front window. It meant that the Condiment Queen and I sat perpendicular to each other. Perhaps not as romantic. Worse, the place at various times got too full, and the waiters (and waiters) got stuffed into the space around us. Still, I enjoy the hyper-real decor and spirit of Le Coq. It is the kinda place you want in your front yard.

Our dinner did slip just a bit on one plate, my wife's skate. Meals begin with a complimentary taste, and ours began with a small cup of cold potato soup-yes I know why cold potato soup in January, but the menu also had a medley of summer vegetables in harissa broth on it. Outstanding soup, tasting like supreme liquid mashed potatoes. We noticed the intense underlying flavor of butter in the soup, and I commented on how Le Coq's chef does not fear the butter. Yet, with the skate, the butter went too far. It sogged up the fish, leaving the whole dish mushy and unpleasant.

All the rest of the plates tasted fine. We started with two raw fish dishes, house-made gravlax and tuna tartare in a caper dressing. Gravlax is one of those dishes that an even average version tastes great. This one was not average. What made it (more) special was a texture verging on leather, but not quite, think proscuitto. Pickled onions, avocado and creme fraiche nicely garnished the salmon. Those prickly capers contrasted equally well to the raw tuna. My short ribs were not fatty at all, although with a bit of cow gelatin (to slightly paraphrase Bob Kopinski). Opera cake finished us off well.

Wine by the glass was a biodynamic, horn-o-crap, Chaputier Cote de Rhone, heavy and fruity. Le Coq is doing a dinner with Chaputier wines in Februrary.

With our Restaurants.com certificate, the meal came to $62, which was a nice surprise (and that with expensive options).

I am delighted to find this forum and doubly so to find a thread on Oak Park restaurants. VI, sounds like you had a reasonably good time at Cafe le Coq. I think their food is above average; mymain objection to the place is that it's so cramped, and, in the wintertime, you get blasted with arctic air everytime a customer enters or exits. Maybe that's why the food is never hot enough, a complaint I've had in the past too. But the people are friendly and accommodating.

After avoiding Marion St. Grill for about two years,my husband and I returned there Sat night for an anniversary meal. Wrong decision. We had a reservation for 8 p.m. and arrived just five minutes before. We were shunted to the bar, where we waited a full 45 minutes, watching everyone who came in after us get seated first. If that wasn't bad enough, service at table wasn't up to par either. People who came in while we were eating our salads got their entrees the same time we did. People who came in half an hour after we did had eaten, paid and left before we got our entrees. Well, at least the food was good, if not very imaginative.

Based on your recommendations, I'll have to go back to Hemmingways. Went there once. Meal and service were very good, but very pricey and just never got back there. Bistro Mar. is good; I've had excellent meals there but quit going because they never change their menu.

What do we think of Piazza, the new-ish Italian place in Forest Park? I've been there once, loved it, but can't seem to get a reservation. It's extremely popular.

Carol wrote:After avoiding Marion St. Grill for about two years,my husband and I returned there Sat night for an anniversary meal. Wrong decision. We had a reservation for 8 p.m. and arrived just five minutes before. We were shunted to the bar, where we waited a full 45 minutes, watching everyone who came in after us get seated first. If that wasn't bad enough, service at table wasn't up to par either. People who came in while we were eating our salads got their entrees the same time we did. People who came in half an hour after we did had eaten, paid and left before we got our entrees. Well, at least the food was good, if not very imaginative.

Carol,

I've avoided Marion St. Grill, too, for no good reason, though after reading your post, I now have several good reasons for avoiding it.

I've been to Piazza a few times, and I think their foccacia is killer. VI and I went there for lunch last summer, and I thought it was pretty good, though not quite up to the level I had expected. I like the chef, as does everyone else; he's a good-natured guy who clearly loves his work. I see him in Oak Park sometimes (I think he lives a block or two from me), and I always salute him "Maestro!." to which he graciously bows.

Hammond

Hey Carol,

Responding to your inquiry about La Piazza...it's impossible to get a reservation there even though it's been open for longer than a year. I've eaten there a few times and had great meals each time. But, I have also gone very early on a weeknight in order to snag a reservation. I'm wondering when this place will calm down, or maybe it won't since Forest Park seems to be a newly hip suburban destination.

<<maybe it won't since Forest Park seems to be a newly hip suburban destination.>>

So true. And can we get any more Irish pubs in that town? Jeesh. Seems they'd have reached critical mass by now. "Just squeeze in one more -- they're wafer thin!" Ka-boom. There goes Forest Park. The lamb chops were pretty good at Molly Malone's last time I was there, though, my husband and I have a running commentary on the Potato-Leek Soup: Is it really potato soup? Or is it Split Pea? Hard to tell the difference...

And I don't mind Irish pubs, but if you're going to have them at least make them somewhat like what you'd find in the Old Country. Not the cookie cutter, it could be Mexican, it could be American type places they are putting up. Healy's is one that springs to mind- it is so sterile and they moved from that great corner location!

I've never eaten at Molly Malone's but will have to try it sometime so I can weigh in the Potato Leek soup.

Another recent meal at Le Coq.

I started with the salad lyonaise, which I have had there before. I like this salad of curly endive, not over-cooked bacon (a bit too thin this time to be lardons), runny poached egg (to be incorporated over the salad) and mustard vinaigrette, but I would have liked it a lot more if they used about six less ounces of dressing. I moved on to the cassolet special, which was not so much cassolet but grilled meats and a pot of beans. Still good, especially the crisped up duck confit leg, but the lamb chop and garlic sausage were not far behind. The Condiment Queen had a stellar if unconventional bouillabaisse. Mostly shellfish, clams, scallops, mussels, in a large platter, with broth acting as a moat, a couple of croutons as drawbridges, and a large swirl of rouille as, I'm not sure where the metaphor goes. She loved it, finishing it all. Neither of us got dessert, but I took a nibble of carmel soaked spice cake order by one of our dining companions. Carmelicious.

We had a bottle of Chapoutier Crozes Hermitage (1999). More nicely biodynamic wine. I thought this was one not as luxuriously heavy as the Cote du Rhone we had by the glass a few weeks ago (but still good). Sometimes more expensive wines are not better wines!